Wanna Be Best Friends?
by DevotedDreamer
Summary: It started off as just another day on the playground for third grader Shaggy Rogers. But when he sees a small girl being bullied, will he be able to stand up to the bully or let his fear get the best of him?


A/N: I do not own Scooby Doo or any of the characters herein. And please keep in mind the dialogue is going to be pretty simple because that's the way elementary school kids talk.

It was started off as another day on the playground for third grader Shaggy Rogers. He was playing on the jungle gym, one of his favorite things in the world, next to eating. Every now and then he would play tag or something with the other kids, but he was still pretty much a loner because a lot of them thought he was a little weird. He didn't mind it too much, but once in a while he wished he had someone to play with.

The energetic, youngster was just about to move onto the swing set when he suddenly heard a cry from the other side of the playground. "Please give me back my glasses! I can't see without them."

He turned to see a pudgy red headed boy held a pair of glasses over the head of a short, little girl in an orange jumper. "Hehe. Want it?! You gotta jump for it," he mocked, holding the glasses above his head. The young girl was jumping frantically, but she still couldn't reach them. The chubby boy and his two idiotic friends just laughed at her.

Shaggy's heart sank. He remembered feeling that same sense of helplessness a couple weeks ago when that same kid took his Commander Cool action figure. Shaggy pleaded with him to give it back, but the bully just laughed at him before tossing his toy in the mud. The other kids were too scared to help or just didn't care.

Shaggy wanted to help the girl but…that kid was a fourth grader and the fourth graders pretty much ruled the school. Everyone knew better than to get in their way. Besides Shaggy was just a skinny little kid. What could he do? But when he saw tears starting to form in the tiny girl's eyes, he knew he had to do something. He was not going to let her down like the other kids had done to him. So taking a deep breath, protruding his chest, and mustering up what little courage he had, marched over to the kids.

"Leave her alone Red Herring! She's didn't anything to you!" he shouted, trying to disguise the shakiness in his voice.

The bully took his attention off the girl for a moment and glared at Shaggy in a way that almost made him sick to his stomach, but he stood his ground. "Shut up Rogers! It's none of your business! Now get lost before I take your doll again." Shaggy was opening and closing his mouth like a fish trying to think of something brave to say, but he was too frightened.

"Hey Red, toss it here!" one of his friends yelled, taking a few steps back. Red obliged, then they all spread out and began tossing the glasses amongst themselves.

"No, please stop! My parents are going to be really mad if something happens to them," the girl cried.

"C'mon, give them back, Red. You'll break them!" Shaggy added.

Red Herring caught the glasses and waved them above his head, "Hehe great idea," he smirked, preparing to snap the glasses in two. Shaggy's eyes scrunched up and he shot at Red Herring.

"I said knock it offffff!!!!!" Shaggy yelled, nailing the tormentor in the right in the gut. The bully dropped the glasses and clenched his stomach, groaning.

_Oh no. Did I just do that?_ Shaggy panicked, preparing to run away. He looked at Red's two friends who just stared at him in awe and ran away terrified. The playground was howling with laughter. Red Herring was the toughest guy in school and he got beat up by a _third grader_. That's pretty pathetic.

The boy was on his knees, clenching his stomach. "Err…that's not very funny," he grunted, attempting to get up. Shaggy closed his eyes and braced himself for the beating of a lifetime, but Red just crawled away, "Mmm…mommy!"

_Phew. What a relief. I thought I was toast for sure _he sighed. "Oh! Uh…Here are your glasses," Shaggy said, wiping them of on his shirt and handing them to the small girl.

"Thanks. That was really brave of you," she said, eyes gleaming with admiration.

"Really?" Shaggy had been called a lot of things, but brave wasn't one of them. "Like…thanks. I'm Shaggy by the way. Shaggy Rogers."

The petite girl giggled, "Shaggy?! That's a funny name."

"It's not my real name, everyone just calls me Shaggy."

"Oh…well, my name is Velma Dinkley and everyone calls me Velma. Wanna be best friends?"

"Ok," Shaggy grinned, and the two new companions rushed towards the swing set to spend the rest of their recess in peace. Thus was the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

A/N: For those of you who don't know Red Herring is a character from A Pup Named Scooby Doo and as you can tell he's kind of a jerk. Hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review. Peace!


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